Heroic Efforts: The Emotional Culture of Search and Rescue Volunteers

by Jennifer Lois

Overview

Winner of the 2006 Outstanding Recent Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association, Sociology of Emotions Section
Many search and rescue workers voluntarily interrupt their lives when they are called upon to help strangers. They awake in the middle of the night to cover miles of terrain in search of lost hikers or leave work to search potential avalanche zones for missing skiers, snowboarders, and snowmobilers in blizzard conditions. They often put their own lives in danger to rescue stranded, hypothermic kayakers and rafters from rivers.
Drawing on six years of participant observation and in-depth interviews, Jennifer Lois examines the emotional subculture of “Peak,” a volunteer mountain-environment search and rescue team. Rescuers were not only confronted by physical dangers, but also by emotional challenges, including both keeping their own emotions in check during crisis situations, and managing the emotions of others, such as those they were rescuing. Lois examines how rescuers constructed meaning in their lives and defined themselves through their heroic work.
Heroic Efforts serves as an easy to understand sociological introduction to the ways emotions develop and connect us to our surroundings, as well as to the links between the concept of heroism and other sociological theories such as those on gender stereotypes and edgework.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814751831
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2003
Pages:	233
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Lois is Associate Professor of Sociology at Western Washington University.

Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Studying Peak Search and Rescue
2 Joining Up
3 Socializing Heroes
4 Dealing with Crisis: Rescuers’ Emotions
5 Dealing with Others in Crisis: Managing Victims’ and Families’ Emotions
6 Labeling Heroes: Letters from Survivors and Families
7 The Emotional Rewards of Rescue Work
8 Heroic Efforts
Notes
References
Index
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Jennifer Lois’outstanding in-depth ethnography of mountain search and rescue teams yields insight not only into the specific heroic culture of rescue workers, but also more generally into that of other risk-takers such as firefighters, police officers, and ER doctors. Lois focuses on the way emotions drive some and impede others, how difficult emotions are handled in crisis situations and released afterwards, and the emotional currency or repayment between heroes and those they rescue. She skillfully shows the way heroism intertwines with masculinity, producing an organizational culture stratified by gender. Finally, she discusses the transference of the hero identity from the group to individual members and their subsequent self-effacement in a culture of false modesty when interacting with their support community.”
-Patricia A. Adler,University of Colorado at Boulder

“Lois takes readers inside the social world of search and rescue volunteers, offering sociological insight into topics such as gender, emotions, and identity.”
-American Journal of Sociology

,

“Heroic Efforts began as a dissertation, but ends as one of the best book on emotions I have read in years. If you want a glimpse into the power of really good ethnography and the reason we need both qualitative and quantitative research, this book will provide you with both entertainment and sagacity.”
-Contemporary Sociology

,

“[Lois] examines how rescuers construct meaning in their lives and define themselves through their risky, demanding work.”
-Seattle Times

Editorial Reviews

"[Lois] examines how rescuers construct meaning in their lives and define themselves through their risky, demanding work."

Seattle Times

"Heroic Efforts began as a dissertation, but ends as one of the best book on emotions I have read in years. If you want a glimpse into the power of really good ethnography and the reason we need both qualitative and quantitative research, this book will provide you with both entertainment and sagacity."

Contemporary Sociology

Jennifer Lois’outstanding in-depth ethnography of mountain search and rescue teams yields insight not only into the specific heroic culture of rescue workers, but also more generally into that of other risk-takers such as firefighters, police officers, and ER doctors. Lois focuses on the way emotions drive some and impede others, how difficult emotions are handled in crisis situations and released afterwards, and the emotional currency or repayment between heroes and those they rescue. She skillfully shows the way heroism intertwines with masculinity, producing an organizational culture stratified by gender. Finally, she discusses the transference of the hero identity from the group to individual members and their subsequent self-effacement in a culture of false modesty when interacting with their support community.”
-Patricia A. Adler,University of Colorado at Boulder

“Heroic Efforts began as a dissertation, but ends as one of the best book on emotions I have read in years. If you want a glimpse into the power of really good ethnography and the reason we need both qualitative and quantitative research, this book will provide you with both entertainment and sagacity.”
-Contemporary Sociology

From the Publisher

"Jennifer Loisoutstanding in-depth ethnography of mountain search and rescue teams yields insight not only into the specific heroic culture of rescue workers, but also more generally into that of other risk-takers such as firefighters, police officers, and ER doctors. Lois focuses on the way emotions drive some and impede others, how difficult emotions are handled in crisis situations and released afterwards, and the emotional currency or repayment between heroes and those they rescue. She skillfully shows the way heroism intertwines with masculinity, producing an organizational culture stratified by gender. Finally, she discusses the transference of the hero identity from the group to individual members and their subsequent self-effacement in a culture of false modesty when interacting with their support community."

Patricia A. Adler

"Lois takes readers inside the social world of search and rescue volunteers, offering sociological insight into topics such as gender, emotions, and identity."

American Journal of Sociology